Today we discuss Planetary Boundaries, nine environmental systems identified by scientists as essential to Earth’s ability to sustain life and the limits to how far out of equilibrium we can push those systems before facing large-scale, irreversible environmental changes to our planet.

Global climate change is one of the nine Planetary Boundaries, and probably the best-known. Scientists believe we have already transgressed the safe operating space for Earth’s climate and are rapidly approaching thresholds beyond which human society as we know it, and all life on Earth, will be at considerable risk.

Every life form on Earth depends on a shared set of environmental resources, known as the global commons, that make up the life-support systems providing us with a habitable planet. These life-support systems have been in relative balance for the past 10,000 years, giving rise to the biosphere that has allowed human society to grow and flourish.

But over the past century our exponentially increasing resource consumption and pollution have destabilized these natural systems. Mongabay has launched a special reporting project called “Covering the Commons” that uses the Planetary Boundaries concept to look at how Earth’s natural systems support the global commons and the ways in which human activities are pushing us toward dangerous tipping points.

We welcome to the program today two journalists who have recently filed stories under the Covering the Commons reporting project. Claire Asher, a freelance science communicator and author, joins us to discuss a recent article she wrote for Mongabay that breaks down what the nine Planetary Boundaries are, the four Boundaries we are already exceeding, and the opportunities we’ll have in 2021 to transform the way we live on this planet and restore equilibrium to Earth’s vital ecological systems.

We also speak with Mongabay contributor Andrew Willner, who helps us dig into solutions to our environmental transgressions by telling us about his recent article on the “New Age of Sail” that would transform the global shipping industry, a major source of the greenhouse gas emissions that are driving global warming. Willner tells us about the cutting edge technologies that are being deployed on ships right now to decrease their fuel consumption, including a number of modern types of sails that are once again harnessing the wind to power the ships moving our goods around the world.

Further reading:

• Claire Asher: “The nine boundaries humanity must respect to keep the planet habitable” (30 March 2021)

• Andrew Willner: “New age of sail looks to slash massive maritime carbon emissions” (15 March 2021)

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Here are some photos of sail cargo mentioned in the episode, view more via the link above:

Follow Mike Gaworecki on Twitter: @mikeg2001

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